I'm soliciting opinions about Carlson Gracie Sr and his school in Chicago. I'm don't really give a **** about the internecine fights between the Gracies - I'm just a simple Polish man in the big city looking for quality B/GJJ instruction. After all these years, I'm finally succumbing to what seems inevitable: tightening and refining the 6 years of Judo I took from 1st to 6th grade. I'm a freaking martial arts mutt - Judo as a kid, Isshinryu as a teenager, Muay Thai and Daito Ryu Jujitsu (which seems closer to the the variant of HwarangDo I train in now than to B/GJJ)in and after college; Bando and HwarangDo on and off these past 10 years.

I think because I learned to fall and roll, crank other people's necks and joints slightly after I was learning how to walk, I've always been a natural grappler. In any real confrontation I've been in I ALWAYS have gone back to the Judo I learned under Sensei Wickham. I trained at Chicago's Shidokan dojo for a couple of years and would roll regularly with a Gracie Barra trained Purple belt. He never submitted me but the guy was a mountain gorilla and had great technique and certainly earned my respect. A couple of times a year, invariably after too many beers and smacktalking I end up rolling with some friends in Michigan who were collegiate wrestlers turned BJJ'ers. Again, I've never got submitted by them, but never really kick their asses exactly, either. Anyway, I don't think B/GJJ is a perfect art, nothing is. The overall record of the Gracie's in MMA, in my mind, really speaks for itself.

Im looking for solid instruction to refine all that Judo goodness that has repeatedly saved my ass over these years. I train in a pretty old school TMA that has internal and external elements, great forms, solid standup, great combative throws, but very little actual grappling. Hell, I like getting thrown and cranking people's limbs. I miss it. I need the cross training to shore up my ground game.

So what's the good word about about Carlson's school here in The Big Onion? All I know of him is from a few interviews posted on the web, and some stories from seminars. Anyone out there actually train there? What are the instructors like? What is the structure of a typical class? Given my brief background above would they take well to a humble cross-trainer, not a "disciple" of B/GJJ? Are there better B/GJJ schools in Chicago? I know of Bob Schirmer and his Combat-do school in Cicero - one of his fighters Shoney Carter used to teach part time at the Shidokan. The school's excellent, but sadly inconvenient. The Gracie Barra school in Chicago (at least at it's last location) folded a couple of years ago.

The gracies record in MMA is fine, Rickson' s is legendary, and everyone has to learn BJJ/Judo/Submission to be able to compete at all...

Judo is excellent though.

I'm sure any C.Gracie school would be good, obviously I wouldn't have much of a clue about oen in chicargo though...

"Wrestling is the Martial Art of America";
"If you don't know how to wrestle you don't know how to fight, that's the prerequisite to fighting" David Tank Abbott

"Training = pain." - I said that.

PizDoff when drunk: "I'm actually MOST pissed that my target for the evening got drink...then I gave her my Bullshido Canada hoodie like a gentleman because she was outside with not much on...did I mention she barfed twice when I got our jackets...steaming barf is kinda fascinating..." - PizDoff.

"Wrestling is the Martial Art of America";
"If you don't know how to wrestle you don't know how to fight, that's the prerequisite to fighting" David Tank Abbott

"Training = pain." - I said that.

PizDoff when drunk: "I'm actually MOST pissed that my target for the evening got drink...then I gave her my Bullshido Canada hoodie like a gentleman because she was outside with not much on...did I mention she barfed twice when I got our jackets...steaming barf is kinda fascinating..." - PizDoff.